A/N: Well, here we go.

Enjoy!

Chapter 1 : Where Am I?

Unknown date, Unknown time, Sierra Nevada Mountain Range

John Connor, future leader of the Resistance, couldn't believe what was happening. He had little time for thought after the lightning bolt hit the HK before he was surrounded by the plasma beams. He knew he what was about to happen, but he didn't have time to chide himself over not having John Henry disable the machine before he was enveloped the bright white light.

When he came through it was daytime so he shut his eyes to keep the painful light from hitting his irises. Lucky for him the helmet adjusted for lighting change in seconds by dimming the special visor. John opened his eyes and blinked a few times to clear the tears while trying to think of a way out of his sticky situation. He may have been displaced through time, but he was still strapped to the plummeting HK.

Suddenly the HUD reactivated and John remembered that the HK had an automatic system recovery for situations like his.

Lucky for him it's reboot time was 5 seconds.

John let out a whoop of joy as the engines restarted and he took control. He slowed the descent and was able to avoid an appointment with Mother Earth. He hovered the drone about ten feet off the ground and tried to figure out when he was exactly. He tried accessing the time circuits only to find out they were burnt out by the overload. The smoking emitters clearly indicated to him that he wouldn't be doing anymore time traveling for quite awhile.

He didn't know when he was, but it appeared to be the same where, so he decided to go back to familiar territory to gauge just when he arrived at.

Ten minutes at high speed led him to Crystal Peak and he set down outside the rusted metal doors. The concrete runway was gone but the mountain had plenty of weathered impact craters from the missiles.

"How far ahead did I travel"? He said with disbelief in his voice when the state of the doors. He could see the been replaced with heavier steel, but even they looked ancient.

He realized there would be no getting those doors open so he took the plasma rifle off his back and checked it. It was still in perfect working order so he flipped off the customized safety and blew a hole in the door big enough to fit the HK through. He put back on the helmet and guided the damaged HK through the hole and onto the concrete floor.

He looked around and saw that the whole room was empty, but the ceiling was fixed and new supports were in place. He walked farther in and suddenly the lights by the blast door lit up, well some of them did. The control panel lit up, but as he got closer he realized it wasn't the same one as before. A beam suddenly jumped out of a small dome above the panel and scanned him up and down his body. The beam shut off and the screen changed from a pale blue to a bright green with white words that said 'ACCESS GRANTED'.

The blast door creaked heavily before it opened slowly and noisily.

Apparently it needed oiled.

John chuckled a little at his joke as he strolled down the familiar hall towards the elevator. When he got there it had obviously been replaced with something...futuristic?

He put his hand on the pad and it scanned it, the pad turned green and the doors slid open, revealing a white interior that looked as clean as the day it was made.

He got in and pressed the down button, the machine promptly obeyed and took him down into the bunker. He emerged from it and walked out into the dark corridor. The LED strip lighting turned on promptly, bathing the hall in a white glow. As he walked down the hall he realized that all of the passages had been blocked off with concrete, leaving only one way to go.

John Connor kept on walking down the hall until it came to a heavy door, and if he remembered correctly, this should lead to the Terminator research lab.

This time he was subjected to a battery of tests, including the full body scan, hand print, voice recognition, and a simple question.

"Who is you mother"? The mechanical voice called out.

"Sarah Connor". He said, wondering who went to all this trouble.

The doors unlocked with a loud clank and opened to reveal a big room, one bigger than he remembered. Lights slowly came on around the room while John began to scan the surroundings. He noticed pretty quickly the walls of the room were lined with statues forged out of metal, possibly stainless steel.

He looked at the one closest to him and squinted at the name. The name was engraved in the pedestal along with a short synopsis and the cause of death at the bottom.

'James Ellison, 1969-2021'... 'Died of a heart attack'

He realized that he had walked in on a memorial, of the people he once knew. He continued to the next statue, his jaw hanging the whole time.

'Martin Bedell, 1987-2011'... Died in a raid on a Skynet HK facility.

"So much for no fate, he died long before he was supposed to"

'Alicia Bedell, 1989-2010'... 'Died during battle of Cheyenne Mountain '

"No...not her too".

'Lauren Fields, 1991-2069'... 'Died of heart failure'

"At least she got to live a long time"

'Sydney Fields, 2008-2080'... 'Died during outbreak of the Super Virus'

"72 years, never really got to know her though"

'Savannah Weaver, 2001-2029'... 'Died in a plane crash'

"Not everyone gets a happy ending, at least she didn't die at the hands of the machines"

'Amanda Evans, 1984-2009'... 'Died in childbirth'

"That's... just not fair". Life rarely was.

'Josh Evans, 1984-2009'... 'Died in raid on Skynet T-1 facility'

The lump in John's throat grew as the list of those who died fighting Skynet lengthened.

'Allison Young, 2008-2027:2009-2040' 'Died in a motorcycle accident'

"Not surprised at all, wonder why she never married".

'Derek Reese', 1995-2027: 2007-2050' 'Died due to natural causes'

"Nice long life, can't complain about that"

'Kyle Reese, 2002-2027:2009-2060' 'Died due to natural causes'

"Almost as long, glad he got the chance"

He stopped in front of the next one, and gulped as he read the name.

'Sarah Reese-Connor, 1966-1999:2007-2050' 'Died due to brain tumor'

"At least she got to live a long time, at least she found happiness".

'General John Connor, 1983-2027:2009-2020' 'Died due to unknown natural causes'

"Strange..."

'Andrew Goode, 1977-2007: 2009-2079' 'Died of natural causes'

"100 years old? That's pretty impressive..."

Now the machines, but in front of the statues were clear cases with their bodies securely inside.

'Kara Reese, T-1002, 2030-2034: 2009-?' 'Left planet on first wave of Terra-former's'

"Well Cameron won the bet".

'John Henry, Skynet AI, 2008-2011' 'Died due to fatal corruption of base code while containing Skynet in the Battle of Area 51'

Once again guilt rose in him for not being there.

'Catherine Weaver, T-1001, 2026-2027: 2006-2019' 'Died of complications from earlier injury'

John felt guilty about that one, her injury being sustained while protecting him.

'Bethany Connor, T-X, 2032: 2004-2011: 2009-2020' 'Willingly died along side her husband, permanent shutdown'

"Makes sense, Cameron would probably do the same"

'Annika Hansen-Goode, T-X, 2032: 2004-2096' 'Died due to plasma reactor failure'

"She couldn't repair herself"?

Annika's was the last, which confused him since the T-1000 nor River were included, unless...

John groaned at that realization, he guessed that hey must have gone through with him, but to when he didn't know.

As he stepped away from Annika's display case he heard a hum coming from the ceiling. He turned around and was greeted by what he could only guess to be a hologram of Annika.

"Hello John, I'm sure you have many questions, and I doubt I have all the answers but I will give you what I have.

We managed to get away into the Mid West without any further interference from Skynet, and there we built a new base and gathered enough evidence to confront the President himself about the reality of Skynet. Once the government was on our side we began to fight back, and it was two long years of skirmishes and battles. In the end it cost us dearly to defeat Skynet. Over four thousand lives were lost over that time period, but we saved the world, if only just barely.

I tried to save Cameron's organics, but without the lab and spare parts it was impossible. I burned her endoskeleton after the defeat of Skynet. However I did manage to eventually reconfigure the T-X2 endoskeleton that almost killed us in the hanger. It is now the appropriate size for Cameron and it is compatible with her chip. The dual cannon assembly has been repaired, but I would advise caution in exposing her true nature, people are very wary of robots and AI, even this long after Skynet's defeat in 2011.

As it stands now I have created new parts for Cameron's old body should you decided to come back to us in the past. With them I will be able to repair her body in time to save her new systems from lack of power, with or without my lab.

Now onto another subject, one that might not surprise you. Earth is overpopulated, we are at 10 billion right now and conditions on this planet worsen everyday.

In 2080 the Anglo-Sino Alliance was formed when China and the USA merging into one body governed by a international parliament with the goal to get everyone off this planet in 20 years time. They have settled on a star cluster 22 light years away and thanks to my help, they have the technology to Terra-form it's many planets and moons so humanity can expand. I can't say if they succeeded or not, but the first ships took off this morning, August 29, 2092, and more are being built from the last of the resources. If and when you find this message you may find the planet desolate, or completely dead. It will take them nearly a hundred years to get to the new system since FTL drives do not exist, so you and Cameron may find yourselves alone, or you may find the T-1000 and River, we predict they will arrive earlier than you did, but we don't know by how much.

This is why I have left you tools and enough spare parts to build a completely new time machine to get home if you want, but if not I have 3 years worth of rations stored away in another part of the bunker hidden from view. I have also left you weapons, weapons that will not run out of ammunition and are very powerful, not to mention well built. I would know, I helped invent it. It may be a little bulky in size, but the weapon is light weight and is accurate up to an infinite distance with zero drop.

Behold..."

The floor opened behind John and two tables came up, both contained a metal cube on it. The cubes opened to reveal two identical weapons, ones that John thought he would only see in a Sci-Fi movie.

"The Lassiter laser pistol.

The weapon was released two years ago as the first practical, reliable, military approved hand-held laser weapon. It comes in two grades, the civilian version which is less powerful and the military version in front of you.

I have actually modified them by adding self-sustaining cold fusion power cells so that they will never run out of power. Both come with full maintenance kits and user manuals to show you all the features, and trust me, there are a lot.

However, I also realized that you probably still have the Mk1 plasma rifle, so I spent a good deal of time creating the upgrades that will make it a Mk5 like it was at the end of the war in my timeline complete with a high efficiency iridium power magazine. The cell is good for 1000 shots, but I could not procure more material for additional cells; however I have made a special pouch inside the T-X2's abdomen where the powercell can be recharged over a 24 hour period.

I have left you all a duffle bag containing clothing that will last a 1000 years in storage.

I hope you come back to us John, we could have really used your help. Find Kara if you can even though she has already left planet, but you never know what the future will bring.

Thank you for everything you did for us. Thank you for saving Andy.

Goodbye John"

The hologram disappeared and more parts of the floor opened up. Crates and boxes rose out of the floor as well as two tables, one had the T-X2 body on it while the other had three large duffle bags. On the floor where the platforms had risen were several different stacks of stuff. One area had two boxes on it, one that said 'TOK-715 spare parts' while the other had 'Plasma rifle upgrade' on it. The last two contained many boxes and he assumed one had the parts for HK and the rations on the other.

He didn't move for the longest time, it could have been minutes or hours, but he stood there thinking over everything she said, and contemplating everything he saw. Sadness welled in him at his failure to protect his soldiers, his family; leaving them in the dust while he got to reap the benefits of their hard work and sacrifice.

John did not cry though, he had work to do. He had Cameron to reactivate, an HK to repair, and a daughter to find.

He got up off of his knees and walked over to the rebuilt T-X2 endo to revive the one he loved.

John Connor wasn't going to fail his family this time, no, he was going to kick Skynet's butt even if he had to bring back a fleet of space ships to do it!

16 years earlier, 30 miles east of the Rentery point, Sierra Nevada Mountains

Gabriel Tam couldn't be happier than he was at the moment.

The project his family had heavily funded had been a complete success, the Alliance finally had a practical FTL starship, and as a result he was standing on Earth-that-was.

Instead of taking a hundred years to make it back it had taken them mere weeks at Warp factor 6 to get here.

Fact was FTL drive had been invented 60 years prior, but it was inefficient and unreliable, and it would take too long to get to ETW at anything less than Warp 6.

His family was in the shipping business and had been for the last 100 years, in fact it was his grandfather who had funded most of research that went into developing the first prototype. Over the years his family had continued pushing for developments in the highly classified technology to make it more efficient and more reliable, not to mention faster. The reason research had taken so long was the rarity of the material used in regulating the anti-matter reaction in the warp core.

Unlike in ancient myth called Star Trek, the material was a stable isotope of element 118, called Octavium, after the scientist that had first synthesized the isotope in 2435. It was extremely hard to make, but it was getting easier as they learned more about it. That was where most of the money had went, building the facility and feeding it the extreme about of energy needed to make it.

The reason they were on ETW was due to a breakthrough 3 years ago in warp field mechanics. It was big enough to warrant the construction of a sixth prototype. It had been rigorously tested for 6 months before they began the journey to ETW. He had been allowed to take his wife on the trip to Earth-that-was since her family had supplied the building yards for the ship. However he could not take his young son with them, the Alliance feared that when they got back the now 11-year old genius would tell all that he had seen, and the Alliance was all about keeping secrets. His wife hadn't been wild about the idea, but her parents had decided to watch over the young boy during the year and a half that they would be away with the exploration team. The tour was only a few days away from being completed and he was anxious to get home to his son.

Gabriel turned around from looking at the Sierra Nevada mountains and back to the ship, the I.A.V.X. Sol. It was a magnificent ship, but not a huge one. It was two hundred meters long, 33 high, and 70 wide. The ship had two hulls, a primary for living quarters and the bridge. The secondary hull housed engineering and the science labs. The twin cylindrical warp engines were attached to the ends of swept back pylons along the horizontal axis of the cigar shaped secondary hull. The primary hull was an ellipse that was wider than it was longer and was attached to the secondary hull at the back of the oval and it kind of morphed into each others shape. The deflector dish was built into the front of the primary hull right in the middle, having an elongated oval shape that extended 15 meters wide and 5 tall. It wasn't deflector shields or anything like that, it was simply an energy broom that pushed objects out of the way when traveling at warp.

The weapons were quit formidable, having 20 plasma turrets and 8 Mk 2 antimatter missile launchers. The turrets were placed on the upper and lower sides of the primary hull, two every 90 degrees. That was 16 for the primary which left 4 to be placed at the tail of the ship on the upper and lower sides.

Seven missile launchers were placed evenly spaced along the sides of the primary hull and one at the tail of the ship.

Gabriel was never one for weapons, but the Alliance didn't want anything happening to Sol if they could help it. The captain of the ship was the best the Alliance had and one who was used to flying experimental craft. Captain Dortmunder had been serving the Alliance for close to 50 years now and had more medals than anyone before him, he also refused to rise above the rank of Captain claiming that there was no higher calling for him.

Hell, the Alliance was even naming one of the new Tohoku-class cruisers after him.

"Gabriel, It's time for dinner". Gabriel was knocked out of his thoughts by the sound of his beautiful wife calling to him.

"Yes bao bei". He turned around and took his wife's hand and went back into the ship by going up the ramp. They got into the multi-directional elevator and hit the button for deck two-forward. They exited moments later and went down the hall into the dinning room, the one where only the senior officers and VIP's ate at.

Meanwhile on the bridge, Durren Haymer was busy running tests on the weapons systems. While he was not part of the military, he was the Alliance's chief weapon's system designer. He needed to make sure that every system on this ship he had helped design was in perfect working order for the trip home.

He had made a ton of money working for the Alliance, most of it from working on this project. The plasma turrets were the first of their kind and were incredibly deadly thanks to the enormous amount of energy put out by the warp core. The antimatter missiles were one of the projects he had only built part of, in this case, the casing and guidance systems.

He had also put a lot of work into the targeting sensors as well as the standard sensors as well. All of these were the first line of defense on a ship and they were needed to accurately fire the weapons systems.

Haymer leaned back in his chair after he started the diagnostics and began thinking about the events of the last year and a half.

He had picked up many artifacts out of the ruins of earth's cities, including an old beaten Lassiter which he now considered his prize possession. He had always been a huge collector of ETW artifacts and would buy them up as often as he could. Right now he had only a room full of artifacts back on Osiris, but now he had enough to fill four more rooms just as big. That was nothing though, when he got back he was going to use his vast fortune and buy up enough artifacts to fill warehouses.

Maybe when the war was over he would have enough money to buy his own floating island on Bellerophon like the captain had.

His thoughts of riches were interrupted by console alarm, indicating something unusual had been picked up by the sensor array. He leaned forward and hit a few buttons and flipped some switches. He brought up the bridge's HUD up on the monstrous view screen. He typed some commands into the computer to bring up a surface map of the planet to pin point the anomaly. The map indicated that the strange electromagnetic disturbance had also left some sort of residual plasma halo. The sensors had also recorded a small object appearing out of the anomaly and fall to the surface, but its speed had not picked up, but rather slowed down!

He quickly downloaded the data on a data pad and rushed out of the bridge, the captain needed to see this...

"The ensign was so nervous at the helm he put the wrong coordinates into the navsat and we ended up going like a kilometer before the computer said we had arrived at out destination"!

Everyone in the dinning room was howling with laughter at Dortmunder's story about his first tour as Captain.

"I don't think I've ever seen anyone turn so red in my life"! He added on and the table laughed even harder.

As the laughter died down Haymer came into the room and walked over to the captain, handing him a portable data pad. The captain looked over it for a second before his face turned serious, then he stood up and addressed the room.

"Our sensors picked up a strange anomaly about 30 miles to the west in the mountains, then after it disappeared an object appeared out of it and landed on the ground".

"Sir, do you mean like an alien craft or something"? His first mate asked him.

"I doubt that, it seems to be no bigger than a human. However that doesn't mean it's not dangerous".

"Are we going to see what it is"?

"No, I will not risk the safety of this ship because we got curious, I want this ship off the ground and into the black as soon as possible"!

"Sir, I need ten minutes to get the ship ready for take off, but we wont have the ion drive nor the warp drive online for a few hours". The chief engineer spoke up as he got ready to leave for engineering.

"Just get us moving! I don't want to be left vulnerable on the ground".

Gabriel Tam was curious about what had appeared out of thin air and he couldn't believe the captain wasn't going to at least send a shuttle down to see what it was.

That was when he remembered he had a private shuttle for his personal use, he could go down there himself to see what was going on. It was a risk and he knew it, but he didn't make his families company profitable without taking risks every now and then.

As the captain was leaving the room Gabriel spoke up.

"Captain, I will be taking my shuttle to investigate, after all this is an exploration mission".

The Captain spun around and looked at the wealthy business man, he knew that he was well within his rights as captain to order him not to, but if this man was willing to risk himself then that was his business.

"Fine, but if something happens to you we will not come, you are on your own".

"I know, but I need a pilot".

"I won't order any of mine to go with you, but if they want to volunteer they can go".

"Thank you captain, who would you think would be the most likely to volunteer"? The room was empty save for him, his wife, and Dortmunder.

The captain thought it over for a second before he answered.

"The third shift pilot, Lieutenant Kara Hansen. She should be in her bunk right now, I'll page her room immediately". The captain went to the comm panel on the wall and called down to the young woman's room.

"Yes captain"?

"Meet me by the Tam's personal shuttle in five".

"Yes sir, I will be there". The comm beeped at the disconnect and they left for the shuttle.

"She sounded pretty awake when you called her". Gabriel commented as they walked.

"Some people say she never sleeps". The captain joked dryly.

Kara Hansen, a T-1002 born with Skynet core code, quickly formed her drab grey uniform and reformed her long black hair into a regulation bun. She exited the room and began walking toward the shuttles which happened to be on the same deck as her.

As she walked along some people gave her funny looks because she was up so early and didn't look tired.

It was popular theory that she never slept, which was ironic considering she was the only machine in history that needed to sleep, albeit every other day.

She got to the shuttle and found that she was early as usual, but she only had to wait a few seconds more before the captain and the two VIPs arrived.

"Sir". She said at attention.

"At ease". She returned to her normal human posture and turned her blue-green eyes to the captain's grey ones. "We detected an anomaly on the surface about ten minutes ago, officially we are not going to investigate what happened but Mr. Tam has insisted on checking it out himself. All he needs is a pilot, however, this is strictly voluntary".

"Yes sir, I will go". She said as her face lit up with something... hope maybe? The captain didn't know, nor did he really care at the moment.

"Good, you have two hours down on the surface or you will be left behind". She nodded as the sound of the ships thrusters fired up. Dortmunder nodded to Gabriel and left for the bridge.

"Thank you for volunteering, I am curious to see what came out of the anomaly".

"Something came out it Mr. Tam"? She asked with surprise on her face.

"Yes, but we don't know what, all we know is that it slowed down before landing on the ground".

Gabriel noticed determination fill the Lieutenant's face as he punched in the access code for the shuttle.

"Then we need to hurry, let's go". She said as her small form ran into shuttle and entered the cockpit. The two Tams looked at one another for a second before following suit.

About a minute later the shuttle detached from the Sol and rushed back down to the surface where the anomaly was detected.

"We will be there in approximately one minute, I suggest you strap yourselves in". Kara said in a hard, emotionless voice as she guided the shuttle down smoothly and gently.

The couple obeyed and they were on the ground seconds later, the landing was so smooth Gabriel wondered why they buckled in at all.

The young lieutenant rushed out of her seat and headed for the hatch quicker than he had seen anyone do.

"Wait up miss"! Gabriel called while undoing his straps.

"I think I'll stay here honey, you go out there and see what it is first". Reagan Tam said as her husband reached the hatch.

"Fine, we will get you when it's safe". He called back over his shoulder as he ran out into the dusty valley. When he finally caught up he saw Lt. Hansen kneeling down next to something. When he was right next to her he gasped in surprise at what he saw. In the middle a of liquid metal puddle was a sleeping child!

He knelt down next to the Lt. who was staring at the child in disbelief. She reached out her tiny, shaking hands and picked up the child. She looked her over, specifically concentrating on the left side of her head, before quickly bringing the child close to her chest.

"You're safe, I can't believe you're safe"! She said as tears of joy ran down her face.

"Lt.? Do you know who this is"?

Kara froze as she remembered she wasn't alone, she cursed to herself in Chinese for blowing her cover.

"Yes Mr. Tam I do, but if I tell you how you may not believe me". She said as she turned her head to look at him, tears already absorbed back into her.

"We travel on a starship that can go faster than the speed of light, I'm sure people would have found that hard to believe a long time ago".

"True". She gave him a small smile and decided to tell him what she could. "Mr. Tam, how old do you think I am"?

The business man's face scrunched up in confusion before answering.

"I don't know, 25 at the most. They said you are the you are the youngest person on this ship".

She laughed a little before she corrected him.

"No, in fact I'm the oldest person on this ship, I do not age the way you do". She looked down at the little girl and stroked her face with her thumb, she smiled when the baby moved a little at the touch.

"How old are you then"? She looked back up at him and continued her story.

"Today's date is July 31, 2501, exactly 492 years since I last saw this little girl, and I am 496 years old".

Gabriel's eyes widened in disbelief, but looking into her eyes told him that she was telling the truth.

"How is that possible? No human can live that long even with all of our medical technology"!

"The answer to that question is simple, I am not human".

He gulped as fear rose in him, but disbelief also ran through his mind as he stared at the beautiful creature in front of him.

"I am not an alien though, I was born on this planet and have lived with human's and my kind ever since".

"What is you're kind"? He asked with a shaky voice. She stood up and motioned for him to do the same. He obeyed mostly out of fear and when he did she handed him the little girl and he accepted the baby, letting his parenting skills take over unconsciously.

"Watch, but please don't freak out and scream, River needs to sleep after what happened to her".

He was about to ask what that was but the words were caught in his throat as Kara's entire body turned a dark silver color. His jaw began flapping as he tried to make words to come forth, but none did.

"I am a sentient machine Mr. Tam, built in a different timeline and sent to this one to save the world from those who wanted it to burn. I was part of team of both humans and machines that fought to end that threat".

"Did you"? He finally managed to find his voice.

"Shr ah, in 2011 we finally eradicated the last ai ya core of the AI who threatened to destroy the world with nuclear fire".

"I recall something about that when studying about this planet on our journey here, what was it called again... Skynet right"?

"Yes, but this war has been fought many times. In this timeline we got the United States government involved in hunting down the AI's cores before it became powerful enough to launch what we call Judgement Day. As far as I know this is the first timeline it has been stopped. As a result the public was afraid of robots and computers taking over the world and so people stopped their quest for AI".

"Hold on, timeline? you're talking about time travel"?

Kara nodded and allowed her color to return.

"Yes, by 2009 in this timeline our group had time travel down to a science, we were able to travel forward and back, we knew how to create new timelines or go back to old ones, but after we defeated Skynet we destroyed every last scrap of the technology and erased the data from our minds. We had finally stopped the end of the world, we didn't want that to change".

"What about her"? He said as he gestured to the child.

"River Allison Young was born on July 22, 2008. Her parents were killed when Skynet tried to assassinate her using a cyborg. One of the other machines on our team lived next door and rescued her along with our leader, John Connor. He adopted her on the spot and took care of her along with his girlfriend Cameron, who was a machine. Unfortunately Skynet found our base a day after I arrived. River here was injured badly when part of the bunker collapsed and hit her head. Another like me was able to use his shape shifting abilities to quickly repair the damage, but from what he told me he had to rebuild part of her left lobe. The speed at which he healed her was taxing which is why he's currently a puddle". Kara said while pointing at the offline T-1000. "He piggy backed with John on the flying machine that housed the time travel device and protected the rest of us as we escaped. Unfortunately the drone's circuitry got damaged in the fight, then the time machine was overloaded by a lighting strike which sent John and these two through time".

"That's quite a story Lt., and if you hadn't shown me the proof, I wouldn't believe you". He shook his head at the sheer impossibility of the situation.

"That is only a small tid bit Mr. Tam, plus John Connor has yet to reappear".

"He's going to be quite lonely when he does". He observed.

"No, he wont be, his fiance's essence is around his neck. Her body was damaged beyond repair so he removed the chip holding her mind, one of my former colleagues built her a new one and hid it somewhere safe".

Gabriel Tam continued to play over everything she had said for a minute before he asked a question he felt was important.

"What happens to River"?

Kara smiled as she watched him cradle the little girl in his arms with tenderness.

"She's going to need a family to take care of her, someone who knows how to raise children. She needs to be raised by someone who can do that". She walked up to him and put a hand on his fore arm. "Someone like you".

"Are you saying..."?

"Yes, I am, but you will need to make everyone back home believe that your wife had her during the trip. We've been here just under 18 months and its not uncommon for women to not know they're pregnant at three months. That would leave River at the appropriate age of one year old". Gabriel nodded his head before he asked another question.

"Why have you hid yourself for so long"? She looked back up at him and responded with a little sorrow in her voice.

"I don't want to be treated differently than you, and I don't want the Alliance to study me like I'm some freak of nature. You and I both know that the Alliance is power hungry and the lengths they go to make things that kill".

Gabriel Tam nodded sadly in agreement.

"Yes, I do". He looked down at the little girl who was stirring in his arms. He watched her slowly wake up from her slumber and then River snapped her eyes open and looked around while stretching her limbs. She continued looking around until she found another pair staring back.

"Hello River, how are you little one"? She looked up at the strange man and smiled at him.

"I think she likes you Mr. Tam". Kara said with a beaming smile on her face.

"I guess she does..." He said as he turned his head back to the shuttle as his wife emerged from it. "She always wanted a daughter".

"Now she has one". He chuckled a little and went back over to explain that they were now parents of two.

Kara stayed behind and knelt down in front of the T-1000's deactivated form.

"You saved her brother, you did well. Its good to know I'm not the last of my kind. However I cannot bring you with me because the scanners will pick you up, you do not have the upgrades I gave myself to fool them. Don't worry about River, I will watch over her".

She removed her hand from his body after imprinting the message into his mind along with a few things she thought he needed to know.

"I'll be back". She said as she joined the the couple and their new child.

A/N: Well for anyone wondering I will be using limited Chinese, for translations look up the list of them on the Firefly Wiki under 'Firefly Things'

Also I love the Lassiter, I couldn't leave it out of this story.

Any suggestions are welcome, either leave them in a PM or a Review.